


For the Love of Christmas (and Private Detectives)

by shelovestoship



Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: AU Higgy? Possibly, F/M, I mean, It's X-mas again, It's not impossible, might be all over the place, she could love Christmas, will be just fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:55:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28272006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelovestoship/pseuds/shelovestoship
Summary: In which Juliet loves Christmas and Magnum is confused.
Relationships: Juliet Higgins & Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV, Juliet Higgins/Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV
Comments: 51
Kudos: 108





	1. The Day Before Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> So I had to do a Christmas fic (another one). And I couldn’t help but to make a little fun at my Christmas Sweater fic (I Came to Sleigh) while I was at it. Damn it, I just want Juliet Higgins wearing a Christmas sweater! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is Higgins loving Christmas AU? Maybe but I just felt like writing a softer and fluffier fic and this just made for a fun premise!

##  ONE

_ “Oh holy night _

_ The stars are brightly shining” _

In the past few years Juliet Higgins hadn’t talked that much about it but she loved Christmas.

In England she’d always put her lights up as soon as it got dark enough for it to even be moderately accepted. Went Christmas-tree shopping with at least three different people, helping them to pick perfect trees.

Her own tree she’d always redecorated over and over, until it looked so perfect it could have been in a catalogue. Then she’d do it over again. 

She was unsure where this love of Christmas had come. Everyone in her family had been moderately amused by the holidays. Christmas had always been celebrated, occasionally with a lot of pomp but sometimes just with family. No one had hated it or loved it.

Other than her.

“ _ Fall on your knees, oh, hear the Angels' voices _

_ Oh, night divine, oh, night when Christ was born _

_ Oh, night divine, oh, night, oh night divine” _

“Are you listening to Christmas music?” Magnum asked as he came into Robin’s Nest’s lobby where she was adjusting some tinsel on the big trees. “Who are you and what have you done with Juliet Higgins?”

“It’s the season for it, isn’t it?” she said, turning around and smiling at him. 

“And you’re wearing a Christmas sweater?” he said, as if this was more shocking than anything he’d seen this year. 

“It’s Holiday top, mind you,” she said. The shirt she wore said  _ ‘be merry _ ’ and was red and silvery. It wasn’t tacky or ugly at all; just appropriately holiday-y. 

“Okay, I think you might need to pinch me,” he said.

She was more than happy to do that.

“Ouch!” he said, “I didn’t actually mean for you to- nevermind clearly not a dream.”

“Will you help me with some of the American holiday foods?” she said and headed for the kitchen.

“Why are you suddenly the Marta Stewart of Christmas?” he asked as he followed. “Are you cooking turkey?”

“Marta Stweart, wasn’t she the one who owned Pingiuins?”

He looked baffled. Which was what she’d hoped for. She knew who Marta Stewart was. “No.”

“Oh well, any tips for the turkey?”

“It needs basting?” he offered, and she rather suspected he’d never cooked a turkey in his life. “What’s going on Higgy? What’s with the Christmas-loving?”

“What do you mean?” She went to check on the toffee she’d gotten started before deciding she needed to try something different with the tinsel.

“You sure didn’t act like this about it last year or the year before?” He scrunched his eyebrows together. “At least I don’t remember you doing it.”

“No, I suppose I didn’t, but now that Robin’s Nest is mine, I’ve got the whole visa thing squared away and things with Ethan are going well, I guess I’m just in the holiday spirit!” She stirred the pot, then gave him a look when he reached for some candied almonds. “Don’t touch that.”

“I thought you were being Christmas-y,” he said, sullenly. “It’s the season of sharing and kindness and all that.”

“Well, I suppose,” she reluctantly agreed. “Do you use a spoon though so you don’t contaminate the whole bowl!”

“Really?“

She rolled her eyes. “Please, have a candied almond Magnum.”

He did, but didn’t look very happy. “Is Ethan coming for Christmas then?”

“He is.”

“So that’s why you’re cooking and fixing.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Isn’t that false advertising?”

“False advertising? Honestly Magnum I’m not a piece of cheese in a shop window,” she said and went back to stirring and checking the temperature. “Besides, I love Christmas.”

“You love Christmas? But last year I had to drag you to La Marianna!” 

“Of course you had to. Rick was serving fried turkey niblets and chips. His tree was made of plastic!”

“French fries,” he corrected automatically. “And so what?”

“Nothing. The food was quite good and I enjoyed myself tremendously. I just normally prefer a more traditional holiday meal and decor, I thus decided to invite everyone here for a more English Christmas this year. But since we are in Hawaii and in America I’ve decided to embrace and attempt to fuse all three.”

“So we’re having British-American-Hawaiin Christmas dinner? What’s that? Pudding pizza with pineapple on it?” She heard him chew on more almonds. 

“Honestly Magnum, you make it sound as if I have no cooking skills whatsoever.” She tried not to feel offended at that.

“Do you?”

“You sure seem to be enjoying those almonds...” She tried not to be smug about that. “Kumu has been helping and Rick said he’d bring a pie and TC and starter his father used to make. It’s going to be nice.”

“What’s Doctor Sahw bringing?” he asked darkly.

She bit her lip. Sometimes the tone Magnum used when he talked about Ethan...well, she wasn’t sure why, but something about it made her feel all...tingly? “Why?”

“No reason.”

She poured the toffee into the pan she’d greased. “I think Magnum, the question you should be asking yourself, is what are you bringing?”

“I live here, I don’t have to bring anything,” he said as she turned to walk past him to get to the sink. “Do I?”

She gave him a look that she hoped told him he very much was expected to bring something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Ethan will actually be too busy to come to Christmas dinner...
> 
> Also, I almost forgot; Merry Christmas!


	2. Christmas Dinner (Ethan Is Busy, Magnum is Cheerful)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I woke up to a Christmas miracle today - a blue sky! Seriously, we've had like zero sun hours in the past month (maybe even two...) and I'd almost forgotten what actually light was like, but now it's been as blue as can be all morning with not a cloud in sight!

## -TWO - 

The thing about loving Christmas was it transcended most things could - and did - go wrong. 

Most. For the first two Christmases after Richard’s death she’d been too sad and missing him and the future they never got to have, she hadn’t enjoyed herself at all. She’d probably been quite the Grinch, especially on the 25th - the day they’d been meant to get married.

Not even last year she hadn’t been quite up to her normal level but she’d gotten satisfaction from decorating Robin’s Nest and being at La Marianna. 

But this year! 

This year she was truly in the holiday spirit again!

So no way was the lads somehow flipping one of the Christmas trees chasing after a ball Magnum threw to distract them going to dampen her spirit. 

Nor the turkey turning out quite dry (despite her very best effort!)

The fact that the Christmas flowers she’d order to make some personalized arrangement didn’t show up. Nope. 

Not even Ethan canceling at the last minute.

None of it dampened her Christmas spirit this year, because she was just so happy it was Christmas.

* * *

“The roast smells amazing, Higgy,” Rick said, TC nodding in agreement. 

“I must say I’m very impressed by the fact that this mound of jell-O is still intact,” Gordon pointed out, nodding at the huge gelatinous blob that had been Magnum’s contribution.

Jelly. Jell-O. Half blue, half red. 

She felt weirdly happy and even more in the Christmas spirit looking at it. 

Even if it was tad lopsided.

Because Magnum had made it for her because of her new found love of it. 

He’d remembered something she enjoyed and done something that actually required effort to make her happy. (Okay, stirring sugar and water wasn’t that hard, but getting it to set 50%50 red and blue must have been!) And if that wasn’t what Christmas was all about, she wasn’t sure what was!

“It all looks lovely,” Kumu said, smiling.

* * *

And it was. Because it was Christmas. And she was with all her favourite people. Even the lads, despite the whole Christmas tree debacle, were there (and had been given rawhide bones). 

The tasty food, the decor, the music, all of that was nice. It set the mood, so to speak, but what really made Christmas was people actually taking the time to come together and appreciate each other.

Which she realized, looking around, even on normal days these people, her people, did a lot more often than most. 

Still, Christmas made it extra special. 

* * *

“I’m sorry Ethan couldn’t be here,” Magnum told her as he helped her put dishes into the dishwasher. He didn't sound especially sorry though...

They had been the losers of the Grand Theft Auto challenge and thus were stuck with clean up. Juliet had accepted her defeat with some grumbling but had been very surprised that Kumu beat out Magnum. 

He had been very unfortunate and crashed four times during his race though. And he didn’t believe her when she told him he was a bad driver! Still, being honest there was no one she'd rather be stuck doing clean up with. As much as she liked to tease him about being messy, he was actually really good at loading the dishwasher. A good and often underestimated quality in a man... 

Kumu and the guys were now in the process of trying to decide who was the current champion and their playful ribbing and shouting at the game in the background was music to her ears. It was all so cheerful and family-like, even if it wasn't quite traditional Christmas to have a car racing tournament after dinner.

“It’s fine,” she said, and found she rather hadn’t missed Ethan. It for sure would have been nice if he’d come but really, it had been perfectly nice without him too. “He’s saving lives. I think that takes precedence.” 

“Yeah?” he sounded happy to hear this. “Well that’s good.”

“It’s good he couldn't come?” She handed him a plate then flipped the bobble of her Santa hat out of the way because it had fallen forward. 

“Good that you’re not upset. And that he’s saving lives.”

“Right,” she said, because of course that’s what he meant. She hadn't wanted him to mean anything else, of course not. Not in the least.

“How did this whole liking Christmas thing happen anyway?” he asked as she began putting cut up turkey into plastic containers. “It doesn't seem...”

“Like what?”

“Doesn't seem like a very _you_ thing to like,” he pointed out. “Guess I just want to figure out the why of it.”

“There is no real why,” she said, honestly. “I just enjoyed it as a child I supposed and as I grew up I came to love it even more. Me and Richard were even going to...”

“Going to what?”

She felt a twinge of sadness but it wasn’t at all like it had been.“We were going to be married on Christmas day. Tomorrow we’d have been married four years if not for...”

“I’m sorry,” he said, giving her his best sad puppy dog eyes. 

“Never mind.” She made herself smile. “It’s been a long time now. It’s nice to be able to enjoy Christmas again.”

“I’m still confused by this whole _Santa’s Helper Juliet Higgins reporting for duty_ thing you got going,” he said, smiling too. There was still a touch of that sympathetic sadness in his eyes and combined with the smile to make one of the most hard to resist expressions he had. Not that she ever had trouble resisting him... maybe a little. He was just so...well, Thomas Magnum. She just wasn't sure what leaning into the feelings she had for him rather than away from the would lead to. So she'd just not. Still, with how unbothered she was feeling with Ethan's absences maybe she should... 

“Why is it so strange I like Christmas?” she asked, pushing the hat out of her eyes as it slid down. She really needed to find one that fit. “Lots of people like Christmas.”

“Yeah,” he agreed not sounding convinced. “I guess.”

“If it really bothers you maybe you should ask Santa for some clarity in the matter,” she suggested. Just to see his expression.

“If you tell me you believe in Santa Klaus, I will legit have to take you for a brain scan to make sure you do not have brain damage,“ he said, but he was just as amused as her.

She shrugged. “Never hurts to try.”

“ _Asking Santa_ ,” he muttered as he closed the dishwasher. “Are you sure you’re not just trying to pull a fast one on me?”

“I’m not sure if I should feel flattered or insulted,” she said but he wasn’t listening. “I genuinely just love Christmas.”

“I mean the hat is adorable and all but, I’d thought I’d have to win a bet against you to see you wear a Santa hat!” He flicked the bobble. “I honestly don’t see it. You and Christmas?”

“I guess you don’t know me as well as you think,” she said and slapped his hand away. 

“I guess not,” he said but he was smiling happily as he did so.

Honestly, she shook her head, sometimes the man made no sense!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember; if you can't be there for someone in-person this year, make sure to think of them and check in with them some way, so they know they are loved and in your thoughts!


	3. One Dose of Clarity (Courtesy of Santa…)

## -THREE -

He, TC, Rick and Nuzo were at the beach. It was Christmas and beautiful in that way only Hawaii could be. Blue skies, crystal clear water, white sands, palm trees and that _feeling_ that just made it impossible to not enjoy oneself.

“Aren’t you glad I made us come here?” Nuzo asked.

They all agreed they were.

* * *

“I’m going for a dip,” Magnum told the others and they waved him off.

He swam and swam and felt as alive as he ever did. Water really was the most wonderful element. The way it made him both weightless yet so much more aware of each movement. It was like a dream.

A dream…

When he got up on the beach he was somewhere not by his friends. Never mind. He’d find his way back to them. No rush. Maybe some more swimming?

Then something hit his shin.

He looked down and found a plastic bucket and a blonde curly haired toddler at his feet.

“Bucket!” the little girl said. 

“Yes,” he agreed as a woman came up to them.

“Lizzie, what have I said about throwing things.” She pulled the child, clearly her daughter, backwards a few steps then looked up at him. “I’m so sorry. She didn’t hurt you did she?”

“Higgy?”

“Do I know you?” she asked, smiling.

It was Juliet.

Yet it wasn’t.

This Higgy had a slightly more open face somehow. Happier. Smile lines rather than worry lines. More sunscreen yet paler. A candy-cane bathing suit rather than the one colored bikinis and rash guards she preferred.

“No, we don’t know each other.”

Because he didn’t know this Juliet Higgins, he realized.

“Luv,” she told her daughter. “Say sorry to the nice man.”

“Sorry mister,” Lizzie said, peering up at him. She had dark eyes - much like Higgins herself - but her hair was white as straw and about a hundred tiny little freckles covered her face and arms. 

Magnum looked around and found who he knew had to be here. Who this little girl’s father had to be. There he was. Under a sun umbrella sat Richard. He was slightly vague, almost fuzzy. 

Irrelevant. Yet not. Because he was _there_. Alive. 

“Do you want to build a sand castle with us mister?” Lizzy asked.

He looked to Juliet who smiled sincerely at him. His Juliet wouldn’t have smiled at a stranger like that. Yet… maybe this could have been _his_ Juliet.

If Richard had lived.

“If it’s okay with your mommy,” he told Lizzy, not ready to let them go, “I’d very much like to help you build a castle.”

"Mummy?"

"Yes, it'd be nice to have help," Juliet said, nodding. As if nothing would make her happier than building a sand castle with him and her daughter. Maybe nothing would make _this_ Juliet happier...

“Very well,” Lizzy said, very British-ly, picking up her bucket and walking back to where she’d already started the castle building process.

“You and your family here on vacation?” he asked, even though he knew she was.

 _This_ Juliet didn’t live in Hawaii.

“Yes,” she said as they followed Lizzy. “It’s so lovely. But is it strange I miss my English Christmas traditions?”

“For someone who loves Christmas I suppose that’s pretty normal,” he told her.

“How’d you know I love Christmas?”

“Your bathing suit is candy-cane striped.”

She laughed at that and he felt… too much.

* * *

They built the most extravagant of sand castles. Towers, bridges, walls and a moat to put a real castle to shame. Once they were done, Richard came over.

“Take a picture of us, would you mate?” he said and handed Magnum his phone.

Richard sat next to Lizzy, Juliet on the little girl's other side, the three of them smiling at him, at the camera, from behind the sand castle. The perfect family. 

Magnum took several pictures. Looked at them. Realized something.

Lizzy was no longer blonde and freckled, but dark haired and deeply tanned.

More shocking than that was the fact that Richard was gone and he - Thomas Magnum - was now him in the picture with Lizzy and Juliet. 

* * *

He woke up, still with that picture in his mind and the knowledge that he wanted nothing so much as for it to be real.

* * *

Also, if he ever asked Santa for something again, he’d make damned sure to ask for something more specific than just ‘Clarity about Higgins’.

This was not at all the kind of clarity he’d wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This 'scenario' was just something I've been wanting to write for a long time. Haven't really been able to work it into any other story, but here feels like it fits nicely as a little 'wake-up' call for Magnum...


	4. Gifts and The Rules of Mistletoe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I’m trying to set a record of writing fics in which Juliet breaks up with Ethan… 
> 
> And happy birthday to Perdita Weeks today! Can’t be easy having a birthday on December 25th.

## -FOUR - 

Five years ago it had been Rick that pointed out he was into Hannah. Last year Juliet that made him realize that he kind of liked Abby. Even back before that, when he was a teenager and young adult he’d never really come to the conclusion that he actually had feelings for someone on his own. Was attracted to, yes, but actually had feelings for? Not really.

Most of the time realizing it came like a big surprise to him.

Juliet... she wasn’t all that shocking though. It had been there, just at the edge of his consciousness for so long. So in a way it was perfectly natural, normal.

But that dream...that had really messed with him.

He’d tried to tell himself it wasn’t important. That it hadn’t actually made him understand. But it had.

Now he had no idea how to un-know it.

Yet… he wasn’t sure his feelings mattered.

Juliet was with Ethan.

Sort of.

He wasn’t sure how serious that was. Did he let it play out? Hope it ended and then maybe…

How would one attempt to date Juliet Higgins?

Well, if he’d been a doctor she liked he’d just have asked her to a stupidly expensive restaurant. But he doubted he’d get anything but a weird look if he tried to ask her to dinner… unless it was for a case. And that would defeat the purpose.

So what he really should be focusing should be just trying to get her to see him in a way that would mean asking her out wouldn’t be met with a snarky remark and confused stare. How he might possibly manage to do that, he had no idea.

Maybe best first to just find some way to see where she was really at with Ethan… the doc _had_ stood her up on Christmas. Her favorite holiday. And she hadn't really cared. Perhaps pointing that out was the way to go. Or not. 

Whatever. 

He wanted to see her. It had been twelve hours since they said good night. That was usually about the limit of time they spent apart and anymore felt odd now.

So he headed up to the main house and found her in the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” he asked, watching her put food into a cooler. Wondering if she was going to bring the food to Ethan and have a second Christmas with him. Wondering if he was going to be able to convince her not to do that...

“Packing,” she said, giving him a quick once over then going back to it. “I’m going down to the homeless shelter Kumu volunteer’s at. We have so much food and there are people there that need it.”

“Great,” he said, he could get on board with that, but he needed to do something else first. “I’ll help you.”

“I didn’t ask you to,” she said with a raised eyebrow, “But I suppose a second set of hands never hurt.”

“You’re all heart,” he said but made sure there was enough warmth in his voice to let her know he was teasing. “I got you a gift.”

She stopped. “You did? You didn’t have to.”

“Of course I did,” he said, because even before his rather enlightening dream this morning, he’d spent a long time thinking what to get her. Probably that should have been a clue about his feelings. 

He took out the gift from behind his back and held it out for her. 

It wasn’t exactly well wrapped. But he’d done his very best. At least it wasn’t something soft. He’d wrapped matching Hawaii shirts for TC and Rick and that had been an even bigger nightmare.

“Yours is in your stocking,” she said, she took the gift, smiling almost shyly with what he thought must be suppressed excitement.

“My stocking?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “By the fireplace. I believe that is where it is traditionally hung in America, correct?”

“You hung a Christmas stocking for me?” He was torn between being even more sure this Juliet Higgins was a robot or alien and being touched. He hadn’t had a Christmas stocking since he was twelve.

She began unwrapping his gift as he went in search of his. Found it in an envelope. She’d gotten him baseball tickets! The good kind. And... a baseball card. A very special baseball card...

"Juliet where did you get this?" he asked when she followed him into the living room.

"It's the one you wanted right? Like one your father gave you but you lost?" she asked, even though because she must have gone through quite a lot to find this for him.

"Yes." He couldn't believe it. "It's too much."

“Of course it's not. Compared to this Thomas,” she said, shaking her head and holding up his gift for her. "This is... this is...”

Having her not have words for what it was was just about the best compliment he could think of and made him inordinately pleased with himself.

“Kumu helped me do it,” he said, because credit where credit was due. “She picked some of the pictures too.”

“It’s lovely,” she said, still flipping through the photo book he’d gotten her.

He’d made sure to include all the various pictures they all had taken over the past few years, scanned articles from memorable cases they’d worked (that he’d saved) and some of her favorite places around the island. And the lads, of course.

“This picture.” She stopped flipping and touched the page. “Why haven’t I seen it before?”

He knew the picture she was talking about without having to look. And she hadn’t seen it because he hadn’t forwarded it to her when Kumu sent it to him, months ago. It was them, just him and Juliet, and they were looking at each other, not the camera. A candid shot if there ever was one.

Not only that, but their expressions...well, he actually considered not putting the photo book in there because, well, it had just seemed too intimate. Odd, as he had no memory of what they’d been talking about to make them so engrossed and intent on each other.

Maybe because it happened so often was why he didn’t remember the occasion. They argued and he...admired? her every day of the week. Everything about being around Juliet Higgins was intense. Bad or good days.

She drew her brows together and kept touching the page. As if the picture she was studying was a math puzzle she couldn’t solve. Except she could solve most puzzles. So something harder than that.

He had to smile at how adorable it made her. He liked all her expressions; moderately amused, happy, concerned, pissed to hell angry, scared while trying not to be and even that soft expression she got on the rarest of occasions. But slightly puzzled was one of his favorites.

“I guess I forgot to send it to you,” he said because he had to say something and stepped a little closer to her.

She nodded and looked up into his eyes for a long moment. He wondered if someone took a picture of them right then and there, would it show them looking as intently as each other?

More so than the picture in the book.

After a few seconds, she suddenly turned and walked out of the living room without a word.

He followed. 

Because maybe he shouldn’t have put that picture in there. Maybe it revealed too much. Or perhaps he had, just by gazing at her right then.

“Where are you going!” he said, speeding up to catch her, just as she stopped, meaning he almost ran into her. “It’s a nice picture, right? It’s not a big deal.”

“Course not,” she agreed. “It’s a very nice picture.”

“So what’s the problem?”

She smiled. “No problem. Other than where we’re standing.”

He wasn’t sure what they were standing had to do with anything.

“Look up,” she said, softly, moving closer to him.

He did.

“Mistletoe,” she said.

“Mistletoe?” he repeated not sure what that meant. Since she had been the one to lead him here and then stopped right under it.

Unless...

“We have no choice but to honor tradition,” she said, peering up at him. “Don’t you agree?”

“Absolutely no choice at all.”

And he leaned down and she up, meeting halfway for a tentative kiss that quickly went from ‘mistletoe appropriate’ to something else very quickly.

Occasionally, even before this morning's realization, he had thought about kissing her. And he'd sometimes wondered if she'd be too British, too Juliet Higgins, to truly go all in for it. As it turned out kissing her, well, it was intense as the rest of his interactions with her. Because of course it was. In fact, he'd rather thought he was past getting swept away by kissing.

Yet here he was, feeling so much and enjoying touching, brushing, pulling her close and the fact that this was the start of something. Something possible forever. Because that was what he wanted this to be. He wanted it to just keep on going. Arguing, trusting, kissing, sharing and being so very frustrated and amused for her. If he could have that for the next couple of decades he thought he might just be the luckiest person alive.

If he did get to have it...

“Wait,” he said after picking her up and setting her down on the kitchen table, suddenly remembering. “Ethan?”

“Oh I’m sure he doesn't mind,” she said, toying with the top button of his shirt.

“Maybe I do,” he said, because he had to know. “This is more than just...Christmas spirit, right?”

“Relax Magnum,” she said, reaching forward and nibbling his earlobe before whispering. “I already ended things with Ethan this morning.”

“Really?”

“Really,” she said, pulling him closer, “Now because you said an old lover’s name under the mistletoe you have to kiss me again. Mistletoe rules.”

He decided not to challenge these supposed mistletoe rules or to point out they were no longer under the mistletoe, and simply did what he was told.

.

.

.

**END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might have a 'four years later' beach Christmas epilogue for this, if that's something you guys might want...


	5. Some Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A uncooperative towel, baseball wishes, a Santa doubter and maybe a kitten?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this turned into HEA fluff + extra family fluff on top, but you know, it's Christmas and that's just part of it for me so...
> 
> (Also we got a second Christmas miracle here in Sweden because it actually snowed on Christmas Day and all of boxing day was white! Now it's all melted away but still, it's been a really long time since I remember a white Christmas!)

## Epilogue

(Some Years Later, 

A few weeks before Christmas)

“You can’t just not wish for anything,” she said with a frustrated sigh, coming out of the bathroom in only a tiny towel.

Which despite knowing very well what she looked like under it, he somehow still want to slide it off her body.

“I have everything I want,” he said, putting his phone down to just watch her.

He liked to do that. Watch her dress, put on lotion and make up. It had taken a long time for her to let him do that and he still cherished it. And while it wasn’t exactly sexual it was intimate. Something only he ever got to see her do.

“There’s gotta be something,” she said, coming over to stand by the bed, looking down at him. 

“There isn’t.”

“Nothing?”

“I have everything I could possibly want,” he said, reaching for her.

“That so?” she asked, a playful note in her voice.

“It is,” he said, sliding his hand around to grab her butt. “I got a mostly pleasant wife-”

“Mostly pleasant?” she said, with an eye roll, but let him pull her onto the bed. 

“Sort of pleasant?” he corrected, tugging at the towel but it was really well wrapped around her body.

“You'll have to do better than that.”

“Alright, extremely pleasant.” He kissed her neck. “Very beautiful.” Her collar bone. “Supremely clever, wife.” Kissed the swell of her breasts at the edge of the towel. “Okay, I do have a wish, how do I get this towel off you?”

“If you can’t unwrap your gifts you don’t get to play with them,” she said, but rolled over so she was on top and got slid towel off.

“You do realize you just referred to yourself as-”

“I did,” she said, “And I immediately regretted it. But are you truly certain there is nothing you want for Christmas?”

“For you and Lily to learn to enjoy baseball?” he suggested jokingly.

She shook her head. “Something within the realm of possibilities.” But still, she looked a bit thoughtful.

“Come on, you could pretend,” he said, even though he didn’t want her actually doing that. Because she did look a bit like she was actually considering learning to _like_ baseball again, or something. And she’d already done that once and it had almost ruined a whole season for him. So he had to distract her with something. “Like how I pretend to like Christmas pudding!”

“You like Christmas pudding,” she told him, leaning down to almost kiss him. “Of course you do? Everyone likes it.”

“Mmmem,” he agreed, because he knew that was the only acceptable answer, no matter how untrue.

She kissed him and with the towel out of the way all he had to get out of the way was the thin bed sheet and...

“Mummy, mummy.” The door to the bedroom was flung open and Lily rushed in. She stopped and looked at them and asked suspiciously, “Why are you still in bed?”

“We were still a bit sleep,” Juliet said, fake yawning as she quickly grabbed for her towel. Lily narrowed her eyes at them.

“Did you come here to tell us something?” he asked, figuring that was a good way to distract her. "Or are you just hungry? Want me to make Chocolate chip pancakes?"

“I did. There is a man with four big Christmas trees outside,” Lily said. “Kumu said for you to come help carry them. But I'd rather you make me pancakes!”

* * *

“Daddy,” Lily said, coming down to meet him as he got out of the ocean. They were enjoying some time at the beach, just the three of them, taking a break from both Christmas decorating and work. “Can I talk to you about something?”

“Course,” he said, “You want to go up sit with mommy?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s about mummy.”

“Oh,” he said, looking up to where Juliet was relaxing under a sun umbrella in a beach chair. “Is this about our Christmas gift, because I told you she’s going to love it.”

“No,” Lily said, scrunching her little face up. “It’s about Santa.”

“Oh,” he said again, sitting down and patting the ground next to him. “What about him?”

“I’ve done some thinking,” she said, very seriously. “And I’ve come to some conclusions.”

“I see,” he said, glancing over to Juliet. Because he wasn’t quite sure if he was the person...parent, for this situation. “Sure you don’t want to talk to-”

“No.” Lily looked at him in a way that reminded him way too much of how Juliet did when she was annoyed with him. “It is mathematically impossible for one person to travel all around the world to deliver presents. Especially with reindeer. Flying reindeer. ”

“Well, Santa has magic,” he pointed out, not sure how she was old enough to have figured this out. Or how he’d tell Juliet that their daughter had figured out Santa wasn’t real! He had to somehow salvage the situation… “That’s how he does it.”

“Daddy,” she said, looking him straight in his eyes. “Magic isn’t real.”

“Now that’s just plain old wrong,” he told her, pointing to the ocean. ”Haven’t we watched enough sunrises and sunsets for you to never doubt there is magic in the world?”

She bit her lip and thought about it quietly for a few moments. “But there is an explanation for that. It’s because the earth spins around itself every day. You told me.”

Damn. He had done that. “Doesn't make it any less magical.”

“Okay, but that’s different from Santa,” she said after a bit. “Santa isn’t real. I’m quite convinced of it.”

“Right,” he said, because he wasn’t sure how to argue with her when she talked to him like a mini-adult. It was disconcerting really. “But-”

“I’m concerned about mummy.”

“What about her?” he asked, looking back over at Juliet. She looked perfectly fine… better than fine, actually, in a green and red bikini, relaxing with a magazine. 

“Well, the other day I asked why she can do things you can’t,” she said, drawing lines in the wet sand. “Like with computers.”

“Uhu.”

“She said that she’s good at some things and you’re good at other things. Like people. And knowing when they are lying.” She tilted her head. 

“Right.” He smiled at that, glad that had been how Juliet had explained it. 

“I think I’m good at that too.” This seemed like it bothered her. Which bothered him. 

“Did someone tell you a lie?” he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I asked Mummy about Santa. And she said Santa _is_ real, and she wasn't lying, so she must think he is,” she said with concern. “I’m not sure how she can, but she does.” She scooted closer to him and whispered, “I think we need to tell her.“

He barely managed to keep a straight face as relief and amusement flooded him. Because Lily might be able to figure out Santa wasn’t technically possible, but she still clearly wasn’t deducing at an adult level. Or able to see through every lie. That could really have been a problem.

“Why?” he asked, because while he might be ready to accept that Lily no longer was able to believe in Santa Klaus, he wasn’t sure Juliet was. “Why do we have to tell her?”

“Because it’s a lie.”

“But it’s a lie that makes her happy,” he said, not sure how to make this make sense to her. “It’s part of Christmas. It’s part of something she loves.”

Lily bit her lip. “But it’s not true.”

“Maybe not,” he said, not willing to one hundred percent confirm her Santa is Not Real Theory. “But maybe he is. In a way.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, that’s alright, you don’t have to believe,” he said, “But maybe you could just pretend? For mummy?”

She thought about it. 

“Can I have a little brother if I do?”

He wasn’t aware that was something she wanted. “I’m not sure that’s something I can promise.”

“Well, asking Santa for one sure didn’t help either.” She pouted but eventually said, “What about a kitten? Will you buy me a kitten for Christmas?”

“I won’t,” he told her with a grin. “But Santa might.”

She grinned too. 

“We have to get Lily a kitten for Christmas,” he whispered to Juliet before kissing her quickly and sitting down in the sand next to her beach chair.

“Is that so?” She sounded mildly amused. “I assume you will be cleaning its litter box, keeping the fur off the furniture and feeding it twice a day.”

“I figured Lily would do that?” he said, but as he did, realized that was unlikely. 

She smiled. “For about a week, maybe. Besides don't you remember sneezing for three days after your adventures with Mittens the cat?”

“Maybe there are allergy friendly ones?” he said, glancing up at her, wanting to see her reaction to what came next. "The other option is a little brother."

“Really?” she said and raised an eyebrow. “That certainly makes a kitten seem like less work, doesn't it?”

“Less hairballs though,” he pointed out.

She gave him an inscrutable look. “I suppose that’s true. He might like baseball too.”

He wondered just what that meant, but before he could ask, they were interrupted.

“Mummy! Daddy! Come build a sand castle with me,” Lily demanded as she came over and emptied her bag of buckets and sand molds into the sand next to them. “You said we’d build a bigger one than last year!”

“I’m still not sure what this fascination with sand castles came from,” she said to him as she put her magazine to the side. “I swear you’d never even looked at one before Lily was born.”

“I’ll tell you about it one day,” he promised. 

* * *

A week later it was Christmas Day. 

Lily, while having decided she didn’t believe in Santa, did very much believe in her dad and was thus quite excited for her kitten. She hoped it would be orange like Garfield. Or maybe black with white spots. Or gray and really big and fluffy.

So she was kind of unhappy to find that there was no kitten in her stocking when she woke up. But then she realized kittens needed air and water and couldn’t be wrapped and put in a stocking.

Still, she was starting to be a little worried when she’d opened all her presents from both her stocking and under the tree. (Even if she did get a 120 piece puzzle with a cute baby elephant on it that said 6+ that mummy said she was sure Lily would figure out since she manged the 50 piece on so easily and two new floaties, a new lego set with a lot of pieces and a baseball barbie doll and a mini Ferrari with a remote control that her daddy assured her went really fast. But he had forgotten to buy batteries and mummy said they didn't have any, which Lily could tell was a lie, but she didn't mind because she was waiting for her kitten. Kittens topped cars every day of the week.)

Then mummy went and got something, and she immediately felt better. Because the kitten would have been hidden somewhere and now she’d bring it and-

Except she didn’t come back with a kitten or even a box big enough for a kitten to fit in.

“What’s this?” she asked when mummy handed her and daddy two identical gifts. Tiny ones.

This gift was sure to be boring. It was small and wherever you got the same gift as someone else they always were boring. Where was her kitten?

“Santa left them with me and asked me to give them to you last,” mummy said. Last? But what about... “Now open them.” 

They did.

Lily got her wrapping paper off the fastest, because maybe there was a tiny-tiny kitten in the box. But there wasn't. She frowned at the little shoe. Why had Santa gotten her _one_ tiny baby shoe? Not that she believed in Santa. Of course. Was it for her kitten? Only kittens didn't wear shoes. Did they?

“It’s for your baby brother,” mummy said, smiling at Lily then at daddy. “Or sister.”

“Really?” daddy was saying. And then he and mummy were hugging and kissing, which could be annoying but Lily was thinking hard about what the bootie meant and didn’t mind as much as she might have.

Did it mean maybe she was wrong and Santa **did** exist?

She had asked Santa for a baby brother, not just this Christmas but the last one too. How else would he have known to send her the bootie too? It would have made more sense to send one for mummy and one for daddy.

Clearly Santa wasn’t logical. At all.

Pondering some more and looking at mummy's tummy, Lily wasn’t sure babies were either. Like, how did they even get inside of the mummy? She knew babies grew inside of mummys because she'd asked about it when they saw a woman with what looked like a watermelon in her tummy, but how? Mummy had said something about seeds going in but how? Did Santa put them in them? And how did a seed become a baby? Were they like one of those seahorses that uncle Rick had gotten her that grew and grew and grew when you put it in water? Because her mummy had a very flat tummy so how would it get as big as a watermelon? It seemed highly improbable to Lily. Maybe her little brother would just be extra small to fit? She wondered how she'd fit, but couldn't even imagine it.

Maybe Santa and babies were both magical? Babies **did** exist, because everyone had been one, so maybe that meant magic did too? So maybe mummy was right and Santa did exist?

Since this was a confusing and not really that important subject (since her baby brother clearly wasn’t going to show up any time soon and well, while a brother would be fun and all, but he’d be little and screaming like babies did for a long time until he got old enough she’d be able to play with him and teach him things.) her thoughts went to more important questions, like...

“What about my kitten?”

.

.

.

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clearly Lily got her priorities in order...


End file.
